I doubt that is true. These are high priced items. Any competition at all takes away from their sales. They went years with no competition, and frankly it showed during most of that time. I would be concerned if they WEREN'T concerned. Competition is always good for the consumer - because it forces companies to try or close up shop. We can applaud them for sticking it out in the lean times, but to completely write off everyone else as inconsequential is naive. I also cannot stress enough how the pinball market has changed in the last 15 years.

Stern is selling a HELL of a lot more pins this decade than last.

From their perspective, the competition has meant didly-squat.

Pinball is in a resurgence, but it will be temporary. The competition is fairly new. I guarantee you it is on their minds. I doubt there's 'we need to take them out' mentality like with some areas of capitalism, but it should make them step up their game on all fronts.

I do think it is way too early to say anything about this game though.

I they 100% have that mentality. Which is fine, but let's not kid ourselves here. They don't try and steal licenses out from other companies because it's fun, they're happy to bury everyone who's a threat. A sale to anyone else is a potential lost sale fort them. Pinball isn't a "we're all in this together" kind of industry.

Sadly I was hoping it was The more the merrier I say. But yea :/

Stern started that resurgence prior to the competition arriving.

I'll reiterate my previous assertion: The competition is not taking sales away from Stern from their perspective.

I'm pretty sure that if anyone buys a NIB game that is not from stern that stern sees it as a lost sale. Your argument makes no sense. Stern is pretty aggressive when it comes to what they feel is their market.

I don’t think you can say Stern started the resurgence. They were the only ones left when it did start, but they didn’t start it.

I think other companies should explore terrible license ideas just to trick Stern into buying them.

Like Rush.

RUSH is my favorite band, very niche pin that only fans would love.

Queen pin

Rush Queen?

How many WOZ, DI have JJP sold..
Say 3000 between the 2.. Arveragd of 9K..

I would say 27MILLION is a lot to a company!

Wasn't ECLE WoZ 1500 units (sold out), and the RR 75th was initially 1500 units and they've gone over that, so that's 3000 right there and it doesn't count the standard stainless rail WoZ JJP made for automated. So JJP is well over 3000 machines just for WoZ. Add in likely 1000-1500 for DI and you're well over 4000, probably closer to 5000. That doesn't even count Hobbit and jjPotC.

Around 4000 woz and 2000 di and 2000 hobbit..... thats alot of money ....

Yep.. that of course would HURT Sterns pocket!

With that being said... Ive got a DI LE
But I’ve got GBLE, GOTGLE,STWRSLE and I’m in on a MUNSTERS LE. ‍♂️

To me, it looks like they are competing with monster bash remake and trying to focus on the nostalgia of Addams family and the actual Munsters show. Stern aggressively competes with its competitors. For example, when they learned of the mini screen in DI, they quickly developed one for Star Wars. This is nothing new to the industry: Williams used to spy on capcom, a very new and small competitor. Theatre of magic is a hostile copy of pinball magic. The kings in the business do not take ambitious underlings striving for the top lightly. They didn’t become kings by being nice. No company ever does. Saying that stern doesn’t care about Chicago or JJP is one of the most naive business assessments one could make.

I would a RUSH pin. One of my favorite progressive rock bands of all time!!!!!

Well, who would have thought there would be a Munsters pin 50 years after the fact? Even if it is a competition at least a new one is coming out.

Fun fact. The Addams Family and The Munsters started the same week in 1964.

Yea, but those 10 minute ball times would kill the bar quarters.

I bet Stern doesn't sell 1/4 the amount of pins that Addams sold.

1/4 the amount of Addams would be a super smash hit in today's pinball climate.
I'm just curious how much Ghostbusters has sold.

Agree the climate is much different these days. To compare a game that came out 25+ years ago to a new Stern is not a good comparison. I'd have a hard time believing Stern can make a better game than Addams.

I doubt anyone is going to convince you otherwise then. Many of us think they have already made several games better then taf.

I've never understood the appeal of TAF. Never liked the theme, or the gameplay. It's weird that of all the games, that is the best selling of all time. Had to just be timing. I mean, I understand that enough like it to justify it, so it's just a personal opinion that I am one of those that don't, but not really sure why it did as well as it did and nothing else did as well. There are better games that came out after IMO.

Your logic is flawed. You're claiming that anytime someone buys a JJP game, it's a lost Stern sale? Like they would just have to have bought ANY game? No matter the theme? Wrong.

Stern started it in the beginning of this decade with a series of quality titles. Tron, AC/DC, Metallica......it spread from there.

No, it is still yours. It's not a zero sum game. While some JJP or CGC or whoever games may not cut into it, you still have the 'either or' scenario. The majority of people aren't buying everything that comes out, they choose. So yes, if they have more to choose from it definitely can cut into Sterns sales.

Stern's made plenty of games better than Addams Family.

Don't get me wrong, TAF is a good game, but please curb your hyperbole.

It can. It doesn't mean it always does, as jgentry was implying.

So...your's is flawed too.

I'm guessing you were not in the hobby back then because that's not what happened. But please keep telling people that were in the hobby how it went down.

Please, keep telling me when I got into the hobby.

Please tell us more, Carnac the Magnificent.

Lol, you are always so over the top with your arguments.

So were you in the hobby then, you somehow left that out. Nothing wrong with being newer to the hobby if that's the case.

2011.

By then, the LE models had started making Stern some nice inflated profit. More sales were moving to the home user. Old Jack was liking what he was seeing, and decided it was time to jump in, but didn't have a game out until 2013. In the meantime, Tron hit, followed by AC/DC. Stern fueled the resurgence and made it possible for other to be successful. I say possible, because many have failed.

Strange I remember tron coming out early 2011 ish and was not being received that well. The LEs were pretty much the same price as the regular model and they were available for a pretty long time. If only I could go back and buy several for 5k. Same thing with avatar and rolling stones LEs. So I'm not sure what LEs you are talking about that was making them a pile of money at that time. Maybe the Lotrle in 2009? But once again it was not crazy priced or really inflated yet.

Stern had LE's (if not in name) starting with Spider-Man Black in 2007. LOTR and Avatar followed, then Tron and Transformers.

They were geared to home user/collector market. And yes, they were more expensive. Not sure why you think Tron LE was the same price as the Pro.

I dont remember there being much of a mark up. Maybe $500 on tron at the most, it might have been $250. I do remember for sure that I could have bought several for 5k or less. Seems like I remember one for $4600 NIB even. Poor decision on my end.

Used the Web archive to go back to 2011. My distro's site wasn't backed up on his prices page, so just picked Game Room Guys as a random alternative. Their prices are high, but are consistently high among all Stern's different models. Quite the gap between Tron Pro and Tron LE.

Screen Shot 2018-12-01 at 9.37.46 PM (resized).png

Dont know man, I dont remember them going for anything close to that until about 18 months later when everyone decided it was awesome. Someone that bought one would have to chime in with what they paid. I ended getting a pro nib, think it was $4200 or something like that.

Here's Pinballs.com from June of 2011.

Screen Shot 2018-12-01 at 10.00.17 PM (resized).png

I paid $3800 NIB for my Tron.

Good price! Do you remember what that distro was charging for the LE?

Oh the days when that was expensive...

My distrib was 5995 which included shipping and a shaker.

So easily $1,500 more than a Pro...perhaps even more.

Sorry, No, I didnt even know it existed.....I sold it 4 weeks later....Loved the game...The Soundtrack was haunting me in my sleep...made my crazy playing pinball in my dreams.

LOL! That game's soundtrack is my ringtone!!!

I'm telling you man, they did not sell and were going for a ton cheaper. Believe it or not, that's what was happening in my area. I wasn't using any of the forums much so I have no clue what online stores listed them for.

Great deal now, though we all thought that was crazy and they cant go up much more. Lol, we were very wrong.

Out of curiosity, how much does anything valued @ 5995.00 in 2011 sell for 7 years later if it's deemed desirable.

Had a 1970 AAR Plymouth Cuda back in '75 that I bought used, but in great shape for $1500.00......not a cargument, just saying cash is not worth what it once was....by a mile....